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John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

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Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#81

Post by reaperducer »

seunosewa wrote: post #50
Despegar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

> The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. How? The improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year, while the prices are going up. The company recently stopped reporting iPhone sales numbers. > Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category. Are they, though? Aren't Mac sales insignificant compared to iPhone sa…

Aren't Mac sales insignificant compared to iPhone sales?

You're saying that having two successful products is only good when they have equal sales figures?

I don't know of a single company on the planet that would turn its nose up at a product doing $25 BILLION in sales.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#82

Post by jswizzy »

e1ven wrote: post #22
m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

They can't just throw more random people at the problem - Adding too many developers can slow projects down and make them less likely to work. (9 women can't make a baby in a month, and all that..) The guy this post is about just came from Google, where he lead on the stuff you're praising. He can push these efforts in the right direction, and help make other strategic hires.. Isn't this exactly what you want?

Someone read The Mythical Man Month. :)

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#83

Post by jowiar »

m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

The issue is not personnel — it is data privacy/ethics. Apple has come down heavily on the side of “we aren’t going to do creepy shit with your data”. Google, Amazon, and FB can all pull ahead because they have no such scruples.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#84

Post by ryandrake »

scarface74 wrote: post #71
threatofrain wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see how Google Assistant handles the nearest McDonald’s request? Google doesn’t ask you which McDonald’s is the closest one, tap the one you want.

But that’s more of an interface choice than a technical limitation. Siri both understood the question and had the ability to navigate to it. In my case, there were 9 McDonalds within a 10 mile radius. In cases where there was only one location nearby, it took me right to it.

If you said “take me to” an not “show me a list” then it actually did the wrong thing by showing you a list. I suppose “not working” is technically an interface choice, though.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#85

Post by reaperducer »

threatofrain wrote: post #58
scarface74 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried “take me to the nearest McDonalds” and it replied “which local business, tap the one you want” with a list from nearest to farthest and when I click on it, it gives me directions to the one I choose. As far as the second question - yeah that one was weird. It said that the population was 69 but the text summary that it displayed was 269,000. It’s the only city that displayed that bug.

Did you see how Google Assistant handles the nearest McDonald’s request? Google doesn’t ask you which McDonald’s is the closest one, tap the one you want.

I'd rather have the list than a single choice. That way I can pick one that isn't in a crappy neighborhood, or is on the way to a place I'm going anyway.

My biggest frustration with my car's built-in navigation is that when I ask it for the "nearest" item, more than 50% of the time it tells me to make a U-turn because it picked the mathematically nearest item, rather than picking the conventionally nearest item.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#86

Post by threeseed »

symfoniq wrote: post #79
jen20 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year [citation needed] > Haven't the latest Macbooks suffered from significant feature regressions? No.

I beg to differ. Unreliable keyboards and security chips that frequently crash the computer are feature regressions.

The keyboard issues were fixed in the 2018 MacBook Pros.

And there is no systemic issues with the security chips. We have entire floors of developers using MacBook Pros and no one has had “frequent crashes” from the T2 chip.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#87

Post by kissickas »

scrollaway wrote: post #59
m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

> $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future Is it ? Is the $30 puck better than the Home assistant or does it just suck that much more in French than it does in English? (Not being snarky, genuinely asking) It doesn't understand followup commands, the Hue integration is rotten bad, and the commands definitely have to be rigid. Things like "What were my meetings on the 12th of December" aren't understood. A…

I'm with you. I was severely unimpressed - I can't say "go to sleep in a half hour," but must say "go to sleep in 30 minutes." If I accidentally say "go to bed" I've got to start up a whole new "Hey Google" cycle again.

At least I know it's not listening to me all the time.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#88

Post by cft »

Despegar wrote: post #47
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15-20 years? How are you SURE that smartphones will still be a thing in 20 years? Let alone that Apple will still be the hip premium brand? 20 years is a LONG time. The average lifespan for an S&P 500 company is less than that these days.

Shifts in computing paradigms are incredibly rare. The smartphone is unlikely to be replaced for a long time to come. There will be plenty of head fakes along the way no doubt (smart speakers and voice bots come to mind), but the smartphone is simply too good and has too much utility to be easily challenged. And you also have to make a bet that Apple won't come to dominate that area as well (even if they aren't first…

A smartphone with a connection to a monitor, keyboard and mouse could replace a desktop. If I were the CEO of MSFT, I'd put serious R&D funds into this.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#89

Post by oh_sigh »

geofft wrote: post #24
m0zg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JG was _managing people_ doing the magic. There's a difference. By himself, he can't really do much. He's not even a ML/DL guy per se.

Magic is about management. The most talented ICs can't do much unless management supports them in it. (And I say this as an IC.)

Management is a necessary but insufficient condition for magic.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#90

Post by bad_good_guy »

psychometry wrote: post #49
m0zg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about both. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook both pay their researchers very well and let them publish extensively. That's why they have world-leading research organizations, and Apple does not.

Do you have evidence that Apple pays AI researchers less than those other companies? Honestly I'm not sure that you even understand the argument you're trying to make. The rest of us here certainly don't.

Just because you aren't understanding doesn't mean most others aren't. He clearly said the other companies have an AND situation in regards to pay and publishing. He is saying Apple does not, as it does not allow proper publishing.

I.e. {'Pay' AND 'Publishing' > 'Pay'} not {Apple 'Pay' < Other 'Pay'}

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